An immigration judge granted bond Friday for Beata Siemionkowicz, 57, of Round Lake, clearing the way for her release from a Kentucky ICE detention facility after 15 months in custody.
The Polish citizen, who has held a U.S. green card since 2003, was arrested by immigration agents in August 2025 while gardening in her daughter's Des Plaines backyard, the Chicago Tribune is reporting. The judge determined her decades-old misdemeanor retail theft convictions did not establish that she posed a danger to the community or a flight risk, citing her long-standing family ties, employment history and community support.
Siemionkowicz could return home to her daughters, ages 22 and 26, if the Department of Homeland Security does not appeal the ruling, although she still faces a deportation order issued in December 2025, according to the Chicago Tribune. Her attorney with the ACLU of Illinois said the decision could have broader implications for immigrants held in prolonged detention without access to bond hearings.
Siemionkowicz, who raised two American-born daughters and worked as a caregiver, still faces deportation to Poland despite having no arrests or convictions in more than 15 years, according to the article.
Her daughters welcomed the ruling as a hopeful step toward being reunited with their mother soon, according to a statement provided to the Lake & McHenry County Scanner.
"My sister and I are grateful to the court. This ruling gives us hope that we might be able to hug our mother soon," Gabi Siemionkowicz, Beata Siemionkowicz's younger daughter, said in a statement last week.
More via the Lake & McHenry County Scanner and the Chicago Tribune
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